Buyer wants to buy more!!

[Anonymous]

I accepted a offer from a buyer for my product and he sends me an ebay message saying to contact him using text message as he works in the military and will be away for a while and I text him on text and he says that he needs to buy a gift card and will pay extra for the shipping and for the effort I will put in doing that. Also he wants me to deliver to a different address as he is sending this as a gift. He says that he will pay via PayPal through ebay upfront.

Can I send the delivery to different address as it is different address on ebay?

Also can a buyer pay more in ebay from the total calculated by ebay?

[electronicifycanada]

No stop talking to that buyer outside eBay. It's a scam and you can get banned if you continue.

You're not allowed to sell stuff to eBay buyers outside eBay and that's a scammer playing the classic fake paypal email scam.

They will send you a fake paypal email saying they paid and to send the item but they paid nothing cause it's a fake email.

You really should go through eBay's policies.

[road_warrior.2008]

This is definitely a SCAM. Block sender or report them to ebay. This kind of email fraud happens on all selling platforms, not just ebay.

[mrdutch1001]

you are looking dealing with a scammer> this is 100% S-C-A-M!

Red Flag #1 - " he sends me an ebay message saying to contact him using text message" - All messages between buyer & seller must go through eBay's messaging system.

Red Flag #2 - " he says that he needs to buy a gift card" - No, eBay does not require that-eBay has all the approved payment methods on a seller's listings.

Red Flag #3 - " will pay extra for the shipping and for the effort I will put in doing that." No, that is a ploy used by scammers- The seller's shipping costs are what the seller provides.

Red Flag #4 - "Also he wants me to deliver to a different address as he is sending this as a gift" - No, Seller's ship to the address as provided to eBay, otherwise there is no seller protection.

Red Flag #5 - " He says that he will pay via PayPal through ebay upfront." - what does that mean? Since a buyer must pay through the approved eBay methods whether that be through PayPal, credit card,etc. BEFORE the transaction can be completed.

Please follow the advices already provided to you by other posters: IMMEDIATELY STOP all communication with this scammer, BLOCK this person and REPORT the scamming buyer to eBay.

[femmefan1946]

He's not in the military.

He's not going on assignment.

He only wants that gift card.

Shipping to that address will nullify any Seller Protection.

Sellers can no longer accept Paypal directly.

Selling off eBay is too dangerous after all those red flags.

SCAM!!

[femmefan1946]

You don't have any listings, nor do you have anything showing as Sold.

It is really useful to be able to see your selling account when you ask for advice.

Given your chosen ID, you are apparently selling in a high value /high FRAUD category.

It would be best to sell low value items (or buy them) and get your feedback up as a basic protection against these scammers.

Don't sell anything you can't afford to lose until you have 10 DSRs, know what DSRs are, and understand their utter unimportance.

[ricarmic]

At least you've had the good sense to "wonder" about this and found this board and asked here.

This board is an invaluable place to learn a lot and avoid problematic and sometimes costly mistakes like you were close to doing here.

I suggest speding some time keeping up with things here, you'll find a lot of information of use to you as you build your business.

As femme mentioned, using your real id to post here would be beneficial to you as it allows any helpers here to understand what you are doing. Often additional advice can be provided to help avoid other costly/time consuming mistakes folks make.